Making silk fly lines – the process

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flyfishing, France, Mike Brookes, Phoenix, silk, silk fly lines

Phoenix Silk Fly Lines will soon be celebrating 30 years of making silk fly lines, following the traditional methods employed by Kingfisher in Scotland. We are grateful to Noel Buxton who spent many years researching how Kingfisher lines were made, since all their records were destroyed when they finished trading. Noel Buxton rose Phoenix from the ashes of Kingfisher and was awarded the title of National Treasure in the England for his work. When his Noel’s health started to fail, he chose hand over to Mike Brookes, who has been continuing this traditional craft since 1998.

What follows is an outline of the process starting when the silk arrives at the workshop as 20/22 denier silk, which made up of between 7 and 8 strands of silkworm silk.

Silk as it arrives at the Phoenix Workshop

The silk is first wound on to bobbins to the required number of counts – for example a DT 5 line has no less than 120 of theses “ends’ in the tip and 216 in the belly.

The bobbins are then put on to braiding machines, which braid the silk into various thicknesses, tapered at either end (for a DT lines). Even the smallest imperfection in either the taper on the dressing can affect the line’s casting performance, so this braiding is done with the utmost care.

An antique wooden braiding machine.

Mike Brookes spinning a line.

After braiding the lines are either dyed green or left in their natural colour, which after dressing gives an attractive honey shade.

The lines are then impregnated with an enamel oil under pressure, causing the oil to penetrate into every strand. This keeps the line both soft and supple throughout the length of its life.

The braid is then coated with a second oil and the lines are then varnished and polished to the smooth and pliable finish required by the fisherman.  It is the degree of hand finishing and care that ensures the quality and performance of the line.

The finished product.

Some notes on rod action

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bamboo and silk, casting, fly fishing, fly rod, flyfishing, rod action, silk

I suppose that there are three descriptions of rod action: fast, medium and slow, and, of course, all points in between. Forget all the adjectives such as progressive, parabolic etc.

A fast action rod flexes predominantly at the tip

A medium rod has the action moving down the middle part of the rod

A slow action rod bends down into the grip.

Imagine gripping a common playing card on one edge and flicking it with the other hand, then listen for the sound. Next grip the card in the middle and flick, and finally grip it three quarters of the way down and flick again. The sound the card makes gets higher in pitch the more the card is forced to bend nearer the end.

This is exactly the same with a fly rod. If the tip only bends, the rod recovers very quickly, short tip movement equals fast action and tight loops. As the action moves down the rod the tip moves further and further taking longer and longer to recover, making larger loops and slowing down the rod.

Do not be misled by all the hype that tight loops are essential to ‘good’ rod action. A wide loop will allow a fly to be presented more slowly and delicately in situations that need it. When roll casting a slow action rod will roll the line out far more effectively than a fast action rod. For example, this can be seen when using greenheart rods both for roll and traditional spey casting. If one has a slower action rod the wider loop can be offset by using silk lines which are thinner and cut through the wind better. A similar effect can be seen with faster action rods.

Do silk fly lines have any advantages?

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benefits, casting, flyfishing, Phoenix, silk, silk fly lines

In response to a request from a reader I have put together some thoughts on the relevancy of silk lines compared with modern lines.

The first thing to note is the diameter compared to the modern line (insert photo). A silk line is about 30 % thinner than its’ plastic equivalent with a correspondingly fine point.

When comparing size for size the silk has less wind resistance, and therefore cuts through the wind better. It causes less disturbance when landing on, and lifting off the water.

A silk line has very low stretch and so, when hooking a fish the hook sets more firmly and the ‘feel’ in playing the fish is greatly enhanced and the angler feels more in touch with the quarry.

The working life of a silk line can be a long time with the minimum of care and very little effort on the part of the angler. In general, once a sportsman changes to silk, he or she stays with them for the rest of their fly fishing life.